Thursday, April 23, 2015

The investigators were busy Thursday following the revelation of a foiled attack against churches in Villejuif, to uncover any complicity and logistical support which has benefited the suspect Sid Ahmed Ghlam, walled in silence .

Less than four months after the jihadist attacks in Paris, an attack “imminent” against “one or two churches” Catholic comes according to the authorities to be avoided with the chance arrest of a man by also suspected of being involved in an unexplained murder in Paris suburbs.

This Algerian, Ghlam Sid Ahmed, 24 year old student, was arrested Sunday morning in Paris and placed in custody at the Hotel medicalized God is known intelligence for its “starting ambitions in Syria” in the jihadist ranks, said the interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

According to the Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, the suspect, who had in his papers on “terrorist organizations Al Qaeda and Islamic State”, spoke about the “commission of a terrorist methods” with someone “may be in Syria.” The latter asked him “explicitly target a particular church.”

In the vehicle and the suspect’s home, police found a “particular arsenal consists of several military weapons, handguns , ammunition, bullet-proof vests, “said Bernard Cazeneuve.

But the minister swept any failure of intelligence. “Audits on the environment” student in 2014 and 2015 did not justify the “opening of a criminal investigation,” he said.

Branch internal security, who called after including a possible trip to Turkey “has done what it should do in these circumstances,” he assured on TF1.

The Sid Ahmed Ghlam arrest has yet been totally coincidental. The Algerian student himself has called the ambulance Sunday at 8:50, saying “shot after a flight with weapon” in the thirteenth arrondissement of Paris, according to the prosecutor. Investigators do not exclude it either injured himself with one of his arms.

The police then found near his car and, inside, a flashing light, part of arsenal and traces of blood. Following a search of his student room.

Other searches were also performed in his entourage, including Saint-Dizier, in the sensitive area of ​​the Vert-Bois where a woman aged 25, wearing a burqa, was arrested.

Having arrived with his family in 2001 in this city of Haute-Marne, Sid Ahmed Ghlam returned to Algeria in 2003 where he spent his BA in 2010, detailed François Molins. Revenue in France, single with no children initiated electronic studies

-. Identify potential supporters –

terrorism investigation led by the Paris prosecutor will determine any complicity he received, its funding sources and from its arsenal.

Investigators made a disturbing overlap between the student and the murder of a Northerner 32, Aurelie Chatelain found killed by a bullet in his car on Sunday morning in Villejuif.

According to the prosecutor, the suspect had been researching the churches of the suburbs of Paris.

“It There were sites that had been identified, the distances were evaluated between the police and the churches, and therefore we felt it was possibly on the way to the commission of such acts when he conducted the crime Aurelie Chatelain, “perhaps to steal his car, said Bernard Cazeneuve.

According to the prosecutor, the operation of the GPS suspect also demonstrates its presence in this city of Val-de-Marne, at a time when the young woman was killed. The bullet was fired from the revolver with a suspect whose DNA was also found in the vehicle Aurelie Chatelain.

Police custody Sid Ahmed Ghlam can be extended up to six days , an exceptional period that the law allows only face “serious imminent risk of a terrorist action.”

In January, a series of jihadist attacks in Paris and the suburbs, against Charlie Hebdo, a municipal police and a kosher supermarket, have killed 17 people. The three killers, Saeed Sharif brothers and Kouachi the one hand and on the other hand Amédy Coulibaly, were shot dead by the police.

This time, “it is the Catholics of France who were targeted, “said Prime Minister Manuel Valls:” Wanting to attack a church is to attack a symbol of France, is the essence of France that probably wanted to target. “

The Bishops’ Conference of France called his followers” not to give in to fear “against an” isolated initiative. ”